


Best I Never Had

by Draco_sollicitus



Series: Damerey Tumblr Collection [6]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Confessions of love, F/M, Kidnapping, Mind Manipulation, Physical Torture, Psychological Torture, Rescue Mission, Tumblr Prompt, creepy kylo, depictions of torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-06 19:01:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15201356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draco_sollicitus/pseuds/Draco_sollicitus
Summary: Poe Dameron and Rey from Jakku have been dancing around this thing between them for months. But when a mission to recover intel goes haywire, Rey is captured by Kylo Ren, right after sending a message that shatters what's left of Poe's control.The best pilot in the Resistance will go to the ends of the galaxy to save the last of the Jedi, the woman he loves.





	1. Should Have Told You

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the tumblr quote prompt "I should have told you" from raissapl.
> 
> I started this (part of chapter 1 and some of chapter 2) on my tumblr ([dracosollicitus](https://dracosollicitus.tumblr.com/post/175062511604/damerey-25-i-want-an-answer-goddammit-9)) but I needed some motivation to finish the final part, so I decided to add to it and publish what I had on here - 
> 
> Heavy warnings for the second/third chapter, per the rating/archive warning and the info in the tags. Kylo Ren is NOT a good person, absolutely nonredeemable in this fic.

Poe checked his chrono anxiously – they should have been back by now.

BB-8 and the last Jedi, off on a risky mission to secure important data – intel on the First Order’s current initiative to steal Force-Sensitive children and turn them into perfect soldiers – they were a dream team, to be sure, but Poe would feel a hell of a lot better once the pair were safely back at base.

Still, two hours late wasn’t a significant amount of time, not with Hyperspace thrown into the mix. Rey stubbornly refused to do the maths for her navigations, ever, and Beebee, the idiotic droid, was all too happy to encourage Rey in her “let’s listen to the Force and plug in whatever coordinates we want!” mission. He really should have programmed it differently.

He took a deep breath and told himself he was anxious for other reasons: he was anxious to see Rey again, after their moment in the hangar before she’d left three weeks ago.

_“Are you going to miss me, Colonel?” She’d asked cheekily, securing a few emergency items in her pack. Poe was leaning against her workstation, and his eyes flitted around briefly – no one near them, no one looking at them – before answering._

_“I’m gonna miss you like crazy, Sunshine.” His voice was more gravelly than he’d intended, and Rey picked up on it. Kriff it, he thought. We’ve been dancing around this for too long. Months. Almost a year, if you started counting at Crait – seeing her the first time, a goddess surrounded by light, had punched him in the gut harder than a stormtrooper._

_Reaching out, he toyed with the fringe of one of her arm wraps and cleared his throat. “I’m not going to say goodbye to you. Because you’re going to come back. Right?” He held her gaze for a moment, and then another, and he’d panicked, gods he really had misread the signs, she’s a decade younger than you Dameron, eject! Imminent danger of crash! Abort the mission—_

_“I’ll come back to you. I’ll come **home**.” Rey’s eyes were serious but calm. She gripped his hand in place and looked at him steadily. “I swear.” _

_“Good.” When did they get so close? Her nose was inches from his. His eyes flickered to the bow of her mouth, her pert, pretty little mouth that he’d been smacked upside the head for staring at during meetings (Leia and her uncanny ability to read his lecherous mind), and then back up to her beautiful eyes. Prettiest damn eyes in the galaxy, he swore to the gods. “And then you’ll see just how much I missed you.”_

_She swallowed. He saw it, followed the movement of her slender throat greedily. Don’t kiss her the first time before she leaves for three weeks. Don’t. Just don’t. You don’t want that._

_Oh, he wanted._

_So little space to cross, then, just a tilt of the head and a shift of his legs and he’d be—_

_“Rey!” Rose Tico scurried towards them, clutching some parts in her hands. Poe swore under his breath and straightened up, and Rey turned pink and smoothed out her tunic (not that it had gotten the chance to be mussed up. Gods though, he would have, if he’d been able to) before turning to face her friend. “I have some last minute suggestions for your X-Wing and, -- oh. Am I…interrupting?” Poe heard the tone of hope in Rose’s voice, and he looked at Rey in confusion – Rey was darker pink and shaking her head ferociously at Rose._

_Oh. That was fun. Poe would tease her about that later. After she got back safely, of course._

_“Well then,” Rose sighed and then held out the parts. “Let’s go plug these in, see what you can do.”_

_“Alright.” Rose turned around at Rey’s confirmation, but the Jedi looked at Poe before walking away, regret heavy in her eyes._

_“To be continued,” he said, grinning at her wickedly. Rey blushed and nodded, following Rose under her bird._

_She’d left half an hour later, taking his droid and his heart with him. They hadn’t had a chance to finish what they’d started._

Poe shook his head in an attempt to snap out of the memory and walked to Central. They had a couple search parties out right now, clearing out debris from recent battles, picking up refugees from ships and planets alike, and he was the senior officer on duty starting in ten minutes. As Colonel, he’d taken on more leadership roles and wasn’t flying anymore, except in his free time (like he had free time. Yeah right. If he had free time, he’d be taking pretty girls with freckles and a smile brighter than the stars out on dates. Free time).

He nodded at Snap, his second for the shift, and took his place at the star map, willing himself not to check his chronometer every five minutes.

Another hour passed in relative calm – a few calls here and there from ships a few jumps away, but then, a computer near Kaydel Connix screamed an alert, the series of beeps in Binary suggesting that it was an encrypted message. Poe frowned and waited for her to decrypt it.

“There’s a distress call in here,” Connix reported, rapidly configuring the signal. She looked up with fear written on her typically stoic face. “It’s Rey.”

Poe felt ice running down his spine, pooling at the base; he froze to the spot, forgetting for a moment where he was and what he was. Snap cleared his throat and nodded at Connix when it was clear Poe wasn’t going to say anything. 

“I think the colonel wants you to play it, Lieutenant.” 

She nodded and tapped another button quickly. Poe leaned forward towards the console as Rey’s voice appeared. 

“…this is Commander Rey of the Resistance, with a message for Colonel Poe Dameron -”

“I’m here,” Poe said quickly, resting a hand next to the speaker. “I’m right here, Sunshine.” His voice dropped to a whisper, and he stared at the place her voice had just issued from.

“It’s a recording, Colonel,” Connix said gently. “She can’t hear you.” 

“I know this is a little unorthodox,” Rey started speaking again, and every officer in Command quieted down so her voice could ring out clearly. “But I’ve never really been all that good at … Uhm,” her voice cracked briefly, and she sniffed, faintly. 

When she spoke again, the quivering tone was gone, but Poe’s heart had already stopped beating. “Kylo Ren has locked onto me, and we can’t move. I’ve already sent the files off the ship with BB-8. He should be with you all in the next few hours. I didn’t want him to be followed, so I stayed on, to distract Kylo. I’m what he wants, after all. I imagine they’ll board soon. And - and I don’t know what will happen then, but I can’t imagine I’ll get another chance to do this.” 

She was crying again, but her voice stayed strong. Poe’s hand was trembling where it rested on the console, and his other hand gripped the hem of his jacket tightly. 

“I’m - I’m sorry to do it like this, but I don’t think I’ll be coming home. I love you, Poe. I love you so much. I should have told you a long time ago, but there was always a battle or training or secret missions that ended with me getting captured.” There was an obvious sound of Rey wiping her nose, and she laughed shakily. Poe was openly crying at this point, and Snap gripped his arm when the base started to tilt sideways. “I love you, and I want you to -”

“Scavenger. Saying your goodbyes?” 

A different voice populated the recording. The sound of it carved what was left of Poe wide open.

 There was no hint of fear in Rey’s voice when she spoke again.

“Hello, Ben.”

The recording ended, and Connix looked up, her jaw trembling noticeably. 

“Poe,” Snap said with a warning in his voice. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t -”

Poe ripped his arm out of Snap’s grip and sprinted for the hangar bay.


	2. A Disturbing Transmission

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe and the Resistance receive an upsetting message from Kylo Ren while they try to plan a rescue mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Rey isn't doing well (implied background torture) and Kylo makes some Super Creepy Statements.

With Rey at the mercy of the First Order, Poe was convinced by General Organa to hold off on the rescue mission while they compiled a team to extract their Jedi.

Fine. So “convinced” meant “stunned and dragged forcibly from the cockpit of Black One.” It was really the only way to get him to back down from his plan of getting in an X-Wing and blowing stuff (read: Kylo Ren) up. Poe would like to think that he was reasonable when he woke up from being stunned, but it was hard to describe bodily throwing two junior officers while screaming for a girl that couldn’t hear him as ‘reasonable.’

In retrospect, it was probably for the best that he hadn’t flown off blindly, for they had no idea where Rey was. Her tracker had been removed, and the last coordinates they had for her were the ones BB-8 shared when it arrived four hours after her haunting transmission. 

“So, send out a search party,” Poe argued to Leia after Beebee cooed sadly that it had no idea where Rey was. The older woman sighed and gave him a sympathetic smile.

“I’m sorry, Colonel,” she said, resting her hand on his arm. “I want her back just as much as you do. But we simply aren’t strong enough to send out a dozen ships to shoot at random First Order ships until we find the one our Rey is on.”

Poe nodded, biting back a snarky response that would probably only lead to another demotion. He wouldn’t be able to help Rey if he were court martialed. “I just.” He swallowed, hard, and fought back tears. “I just wish I knew if she were okay.”

Leia gave him a steady look, her eyes betraying nothing. “She’s alive, Poe. I can tell you that much.” It was what she didn’t tell him that haunted him that night. Poe woke up in a dead sweat at 0200, clutching his mother’s ring, and gasping Rey’s name. He’d had the most terrifying dream, but the longer he was awake, the less he could remember it; the next day passed in a blur, overshadowed by the vague horror of his nightmare.

The transmission Kylo Ren put out 48 hours after Rey’s message didn’t help matters.

 “Greetings,” his cold voice issued out from the holo. Poe stood with the other officers in Command to watch; it was playing on every screen in the galaxy apparently. “I have excellent news.” Poe rolled his eyes and clenched his fists. On screen, the Supreme Leader relaxed in a large, black throne. “I know many of you have been concerned over the disrespectful, disruptive antics of a military body with no actual governmental support, a fringe group calling themselves ‘The Resistance’. Many of you have feared that they would gain insurmountable support given their connection to the Jedi Order, the so-called sacred organization from children’s tales and legends.” Kylo smirked, clearly at ease, and reclined against the back of his ornate chair. “But don’t worry. They are no longer in collaboration with the last remaining Jedi. In fact, she’s right here.”

Finn gripped his arm, and Poe realized he’d lurched towards the screen involuntarily.

Rey had appeared on the screen, standing next to Ren’s throne. She wore simple black robes, not terribly different than the grey ones she favored on base, but she looked - well, she looked terrible. They’d clearly dumped make-up on her pale face, but she was visibly trembling, her hair flat against her head, and loose from her usual buns. Poe growled in his throat when Kylo reached up to grasp Rey’s shoulder, and she flinched away from the touch almost imperceptibly.

“The galaxy need no longer fear the Resistance gaining undue support for their ridiculous cause, given that their main selling point is standing here with me. I thank you for allowing me to speak with you today, and I look forward to making another happy announcement to you very soon. Isn’t that right, Rey?” 

The last thing Poe saw before the transmission cut out was Kylo’s thumb stroking a circle into Rey’s shoulder. She didn’t even blink, but her jaw set in a stubborn line, her eyes boring into Poe’s from lightyears away.

“What the kriff was that?” Poe demanded of Leia as soon as it cut off. “What was that slimy piece of Sith suggesting,  _ another happy announcement _ ?”

“I think you know, Colonel,” Leia said softly. Her words were no less heavy for their brevity or for their volume, and Poe froze completely, a rush of white noise in his ears. She couldn’t - they couldn’t make her -

What were they doing to her to get her to look so defeated, so pale? What was Kylo doing? If he so much as  _ touched  _ Rey beyond that creepy shoulder hold, Poe would fucking murder him, he wouldn’t miss this time, Force or no Force, that piece of banthash-

“General!” Rose Tico shrieked, interrupting Poe’s dangerous train of thought. “I have-!” She stumbled to a halt in front of the general, gasping for air and holding up a file-drive. 

“Yes, Miss Tico?” Leia asked, arching a perfect eyebrow.

“Rey - the transmission  - encrypted-” Rose stuttered out the words, waving the file drive. General Organa raised both brows at her, and Rose cleared her throat and stood up straight. “I ran an encryption code against the transmission and unscrambled the source of the message. Kylo was projecting from a ship called  _ Vader II,  _ in the heart of the Ileenium system.”

“He’s near D’Qar?” Finn clarified. He snorted angrily. “Taunting us, the bastard.”

“He’ll be expecting an ambush,” Leia said warningly, lifting a hand to Poe, who’d already opened his mouth to argue going in for the rescue. 

“I don’t think so,” Rose said, and then she squeaked, realizing she’d disagreed with the general. Leia gestured at her to keep talking, and Rose did, her cheeks bright red. “The signal bounced around 250 different potential sources. Whoever transmitted it thought no one would be able to decrypt it. I don’t think they’re expecting anyone.”

“We have TIE-fighters that we stole from that freighter,” Connix pointed out, tapping her fingers against her monitor. 

“And Stormtrooper uniforms from the defecting troops,” Finn said thoughtfully. 

“And I can lift some clearance codes from their system, now that I know where the  _ Vader  _ is!” Rose supplied.

Poe turned to Leia, who sighed and surveyed the collected officers. “Are there any volunteers for what most likely will be a suicide mission?”

Poe’s hand was the first of two dozen to shoot into the air. 

“Fine.” Leia rolled her eyes and began to lay out the plan - they’d go in, most of them in TIE-fighters, and Chewie flying the Falcon at a respectable safe distance so that they’d be able to latch onto him during the escape. Poe would drop down in a pod, retrieve Rey, and return to the Falcon with the Resistance flying the TIEs as cover. 

Rose managed to pull up a blueprint, and Finn confirmed the most likely location of the prisoner holding cells. Leia wore an expression of distant discomfort when Finn talked of First Order interrogation - having been a guest of Kylo Ren in the past, Poe understood all too well the importance of getting Rey out as soon as possible. 

The fact that they hadn’t been swarmed with Stormtroopers here on their base by now was a testament to Rey’s strength - or, a testament to the fact that Kylo wanted something other than information from her, a thought that Poe refused to chase for long. 

A hour later, he found himself boarding the Falcon with Chewie and saluting to Leia from the top of the ramp. 

“May the Force be with you, Colonel Dameron,” she said gravely. Poe repeated the sentiment, and then raised the ramp. He left his right hand against the hull of the ship as Chewie initiated take-off.

Poe closed his eyes and clutched his mother’s ring tightly in his left hand, envisioning Rey’s smile, her joyous laughter, her shoulder brushing against his in moments of quiet, her voice telling him she loved him -

“I’m coming, Sunshine,” Poe whispered, praying that the Force could somehow carry this promise to her. “I love you, and I’m coming.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter - the Rescue


	3. Rescue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe infiltrates a First Order ship to rescue Rey; the depths of the torture she suffered at the hands of her captors begins to reveal itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings for depictions/aftermath of torture, both physical and psychological!

Poe walked quickly down the corridor, adjusting his First Order uniform that he’d put on moments before leaving the Falcon. Chewie had howled worriedly to see Poe disappear into the enemy uniform, but after a quiet,  _this is for Rey, buddy,_ the Wookiee had nodded in understanding and wished him luck.

Now he was at the corner, and he checked the holo-map that had been marked by Finn, his destination glowing blue - to his right. He heard the two guards talking at the doors to the holding cells, and Poe took a deep, steadying breath, and prayed to the Force that they’d buy his story.

(The Force, of course, didn’t listen).

Poe rounded the corner, and hailed the guards.

"The Supreme Leader sent me to check on the prisoner,” he said, standing at attention the way Finn had taught him. The other stormtrooper nodded and keyed in the access code to the prison wing - Poe tried not to appear too eager to get through the doors. 

 Stormtrooper One was less forthcoming. “Wait a minute,” he said. “We weren’t told of any new guards for the Jedi scum. Show us your credentials.” 

 “Yeah, right, my credentials,” Poe said. “Here, let me get that for you.” He pretended to pat his jacket for a second before shooting both troopers. “Everything check out okay?” 

Poe sprinted through the still-open doors and headed for the only occupied cell. He fumbled with the master decrypter key, built by Rose, and managed to initiate the door locks. 

“Come on,” he moaned, looking down the hallway. No one had discovered the stunned guards yet, but it was only a matter of time. Finally, the doors hissed open, and Poe threw himself into the room. 

 He stumbled automatically, and his eyes widened in horror. “Rey?” He breathed. “Oh gods, Rey-” 

The Jedi was strapped to a familiar chair, one that still haunted his nightmares; blood trickled from her hairline, drying grotesquely at her jaw and neck, and her skin was paler than a bleached moon. 

She wasn’t moving.

The doors slid shut behind him, and Poe tripped over his own feet in his haste to get to her side; he kicked the tray next to the table away viciously, the various instruments that bore the blackened remains of blood (he refused to think of it as _Rey’s_ blood, even when confronted with the evidence), the syringes of viscous liquid that he remembered all too well from his time with Ren, all clattering to the floor. He grabbed Rey’s arm, wincing at the bruising and burns that cluttered her once fair skin, her freckles not even visible under the damage, and he shook her gently, growing more and more ferocious with each passing millisecond.

“Rey?” He said urgently, his other hand cupping her cheek, trying to avoid the bruise that surrounded her left eye. “Rey, sweetheart, wake up.” She still didn’t move, and he forced himself to lean down and put an ear to her chest while wrapping fingers around her wrist at the pulse point. Her heartbeat was there, slow and faint and arrythmic, but she was alive, holy kriff she was still alive, he wasn’t too late.

“Please wake up,” he moaned, scrabbling at the restraints on her wrists. He could see that her skin had been rubbed raw above and below the metal, a sign of her struggle – the blood wasn’t even dry yet, suggesting that she’d been awake recently. They must have knocked her out – what was Kylo playing at, allowing those sick fucks to torture her? Poe knew all too well that he didn’t need physical pain to manipulate and destroy, and he (and Leia) had always assumed Kylo valued Rey as the only Force user equal to himself, valued her too much to see her brought to harm – but she was stirring now, thank the gods, her mouth twitched and her eyelids fluttered, her fingers fidgeting against the table.

“Rey?” Her eyes opened slowly, and she whimpered softly, her pupils different sizes; she seemed unable to focus on his face for any length of time. He smoothed her hair out of her face and did his best to smile. “Hey there, Sunshine.”

“Not again,” she shook her head and looked away. “Please Kylo, this is too much, even for you.”

“It’s me.” Dread settled, cold and heavy in his stomach. “Rey – it’s Poe, Poe Dameron, your – your buddy.” He wished he had a different word for himself than buddy or colleague or friend, but they hadn’t gotten there, he’d let her leave without telling her – “Chewbacca’s here too, he’s waiting for our signal.” He fumbled with the restraints again, and Rey let out a small sob.

“Please stop.” He froze, fearing that he was hurting her or jostling her somehow with his attempts to free her. “Please, Kylo, don’t do this. Not – not again.”

“Kylo isn’t here,” Poe studied her face anxiously, but Rey didn’t look at him and merely stared into the corner of the room. “I don’t know where he is, but he isn’t here, it’s just me.”

“Just let me die.” Rey slammed her head weakly into the table, and her eyes fluttered shut. Poe grasped her chin with one hand and gently patted her cheek with the other.

“No, no, Rey, don’t do this,” he begged. He raised his voice and shouted at her, fear and terror and rage bleeding through. “No, you don’t get to kriffing die on me, Jedi!”

Rey smiled, a tear leaking out from the corner of her bruised eye. She laughed softly. “You yell in my dreams too, Dameron. Kylo has good attention to detail.”

“This isn’t a dream, I’m here, I’m right here, I – I’ll prove it!” Poe knelt down and cast about desperately for something to say while his fingernails started to tear from yanking on the restraints on her legs. “Your favorite color is green! And you wanted to be a pilot ever since you found a helmet buried in the sand on Jakku, and your best friend is Finn, and you flew for the first time on the Falcon.”

Rey snorted. “You have to do better than that, Ren. That was first day shit, wasn’t it?”

Fuck. He’d ripped through her mind too, then. What hadn’t he done to her? Poe shuddered at the thought. “Fine, fine, I won’t – I won’t try facts about you – . Um, how about memories I have of you? Things he wouldn’t know? So - one time you drank tea that Rose had made, and you really didn’t like it, and you waited until you thought everyone was looking away, and you spat it out into a potted plant, and you made the cutest karking face, and you rubbed your tongue with your palm like a Loth-Cat.”

Rey didn’t say anything to that, so he tried another. “You always put your left shoe on first, and you convinced Connix once to let you go for a joyride without proper clearances in the hangar, and that probably didn’t seem like a big deal to you, but let me tell you, Kay is a kriffing stickler for the rules, Sunshine, that was a huge deal for her, but everyone on base loves you and loves to see you happy. Whenever we go to planet with green, I try to walk behind you because you stop and you smile at every new plant, and even if you’re distracted and talking to Finn or Rose or Jess, you trail your hand on every leaf, and I love watching you take in new things because everything is new and good to you.”

On the table, Rey’s eyes opened, and she frowned down at him, and he tried one last desperate attempt to convince her he was real. He surged to his feet and clasped her hand in his own, wincing at the missing fingernails on her pointer and middle finger, but he stroked his thumb into her bloody palm and smiled at her, smiled through his tears – “Everyone, and I mean everyone, thinks you’re going to be the next Luke Skywalker. But I know for a damn fact that you’ve always wanted to be Han Solo.”

“Poe?” Rey whispered, a faint smile on her cracked lips. “Oh gods, Poe.”

“Sunshine.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t know,” Rey said. Poe shook his head at her and continued searching for a way out. “He’d project an image of you sometimes, and – and sometimes I’d imagine you myself, to distract from the – the –“ A shudder ripped through her, and he was glad she didn’t finish that statement, too afraid of what he would do to this base and everyone on it if he got the full picture of what they’d done to her.

“I’m here now,” Poe soothed. “I’m gonna get you out of here, Sunshine.”

“He said you forgot about me.” Her voice was weak, but it didn’t stop her words from almost knocking him over.

 “What?” Poe abandoned his task of trying to unlatch the restraints to look into Rey’s face again. It was difficult, amid the bruising, to see her expression, but the abject misery there carved a part of him open in a way he didn’t think could heal. “What did he say?” 

“He said no one ever comes back for me. Except for him. He said a Resistance hero like you...”  _The best pilot in the Resistance,_ Ren’s voice mocks him from a year and a half ago, “...wouldn’t bother with a desert rat.”

“He was lying,” Poe said desperately. He resumed clawing at the metal restraints around her wrists, cursing at his blurred vision - tears, he realized, he was crying, crying like he hadn’t since Shara died. All his carefully constructed control that he’d worked on maintaining since walking in here and seeing her like this fell away, and something in him cracked and broke at the idea of her thinking he wouldn’t come for her. Anxiety rose in him like an all-consuming wave, but he kept babbling to Rey as he worked. “He lied to you, sweetheart, the last three days, all I could think about was getting you back, Leia had to kriffing stun me to get me out of the cockpit, Snap and Finn had to pin me down when I woke up --“ 

“ _Days_?” The first restraint at last popped open, and Poe heaved a sigh of relief. Now that he finally knew how the mechanism worked, the next one was easier. It didn’t keep his heart from stopping when Rey whispered, “He told me it was three months.”  

Bile rose in his throat. “What?” Poe searched her face again, but she’d fallen silent, and he quickly released the bottom two restraints, hands shaking as he caught her when she fell forward off the table. “Can you walk?” He asked, patting her down for signs of broken bones. Rey nodded but stumbled the second she took a step. “Kriff,” he muttered. He pinged the signal to Chewie with the added message that he was full-on planning to hijack a ship from the hangar, and he picked up Rey in a bastardization of a bridal carry. 

“Here,” he said, passing her a blaster. “You see bad guys, you shoot, okay? We’re gonna get out of here.” Rey nodded and took a deep breath, one hand wrapping around his neck while she peeked over his shoulder. Poe grabbed his own blaster and shot the access panel, striding out into the hall, barely looking left and ride before walking the way he came in. 

There were a number of close calls, but Rey would whisper to him that she felt someone coming, and he’d hide them, taking the time to let Rey sit on the floor, or in a closet, or behind a column before picking her up and stumbling forward again. 

They’d made it to the hangar, somehow, Rey murmuring directions to him even as she burned in the grip of what was surely a fever from infection. Poe had seen cases like it post-torture – hells, he’d been there himself – and he prayed Kalonia had enough resources back on base to handle it. Up ahead, he spotted his target – a two seater transpo that would get them off this kriffing ship. 

“Poe,” Rey’s hand tightened on his shoulder, and he looked down at her. Her eyes were open, and she stared up at him wildly. “He knows.” 

“Where is he?” He asked, fear cutting through him, before his next step froze halfway to the ground. Poe couldn’t move a muscle, couldn’t even blink, and Rey’s eyes slid shut again. 

“Pilot.” Kylo Ren stalked in front of him, out from behind a parked TIE-Fighter. “I believe you have something of mine.”

 _Oh, fuck you,_ Poe thought viciously, well aware that Kylo could hear him, based on the cold, dark fingers he felt sifting through his brain.

“That’s not very nice.” Kylo clenched a fist, and Poe screamed through his teeth at the burst of pain that erupted behind his eyes, somewhere in his brain. The gloved hand relaxed, and Poe’s breath stuttered as it returned to his body. “Now, I’ll take the scavenger, and I’ll find a nice airlock for you to sit in.”

Faster than either of them could process, Rey shifted in Poe’s arms, twisting and landing on her feet in front of him, teeth bared – she shot with the blaster, and shoved sideways with her free hand – Kylo’s lightsaber soared through the air, and the blaster shot struck him in the ribs, knocking him backwards.

“Let’s go,” Rey gasped, staggering on her feet, and Poe realized he could move again. Rey extended her hand, and the lightsaber flew forward, striking her palm, and he half-carried, half-supported her to the waiting transpo. “How about you fly?” Rey joked weakly as he settled her in a seat and buckled her in.

“Gods, things must be bad if you’re willing to let me fly,” Poe joked back, his hands flying over the controls, his hand going to the thruster. Rey smirked and sagged backwards. 

“Less talk, more fly, Dameron,” she instructed. “And next time, I’ll rescue you.”

“Sounds fair,” Poe accelerated the ship forward, dodging blaster fire from the Stormtroopers who’d emerged and had seen their beloved Supreme Leader unconscious on the ground with the prisoner escaping. “I wonder if Hugs will send you a gift basket for doing his work for him.”

Rey didn’t laugh – he looked over and saw that she’d fallen unconscious again. “Just hang in there, Sunshine,” he begged, flying out of the hangar. They had company, of course, scores of TIEs pouring out behind them – but the Resistance was there, Jess and Snap and Kare and Iolo, flying in stolen TIEs, scrambling the enemy formations, and clearing a path for them to lock onto The Falcon, just up ahead.

He flew past it, flashing the signal to Chewie, and both ships took off into Hyperspace towards home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soft things and recovery in chapter four?!?
> 
> (It will take a while to convince Rey that three months didn't actually pass while she was in captivity - basically Kylo convinced her using the Bond that more time was passing by than in reality)

**Author's Note:**

> If you're looking for more Damerey/aren't tired of my writing, I have over 130 Damerey ficlets/oneshots/drabbles/moodboards/and preview for future fics on my tumblr [dracosollicitus](https://dracosollicitus.tumblr.com/)


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